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Closet Clean Out Makes $

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I have been doing major cleaning around the house for the last month.  It is amazing to see how the house had really gotten away from me as I was trying to keep a relationship going.  I’m a pretty organized person by my nature but you never would have guessed that with the condition of this house!  It has been so eye opening to see just how much needed to be done.  On the surface everything looked okay but just below the surface, it was chaos.  It is empowering to reclaim my home. 

So, I’ve spent time cleaning out closets and drawers and such!  Talk about rewarding! From both the motivation to keep moving forward (and recognizing just how ick the past was) perspective AND the money perspective.  So far, my closet cleaning has yielded almost $500.  The list is long and I’m proud to report that I’ve had success with consignment shops, ebay and craigslist.  I had sold a few things when I first started blogging but now that I have the clarity, calm and time to do some very deep decluttering, I found a lot more.  There’s still more to sell and I just sell things as I have time (because it can be kind of time consuming) but I’ve put that $500 directly to the emergency fund for now.  I’ll sink it into debt ASAP. 

I’ve also made $1000 from my Pampered Chef adventures and that is in the emergency fund as well.

A reader pointed out I need to state an emergency fund goal.  As of right now, I am shooting for $2500.  With things being so uncertain right now, I’ll stick with that until I learn something different. 

I’ll be providing some details on my regular monthly bills soon.  It is hard to believe that December is upon us.


15 Comments

  • Reply Debt Free Momma |

    Great Job! It’s amazing what we find around the house when we actually take a count of what we have. Keep up the good work tackleing that debt!

  • Reply adam |

    wow. just for reference – lots of people take months to sock away that much in an emergency fund. great job.

    do you have a goal in mind for your emergency fund total before you shift the extra money toward debt?

    and how many workshops did you do to rack up $1000 in commissions from pampered chef?

    • Reply Claire |

      Thanks for the reminder Adam. I’ll edit and share that I have a “loose” goal of $2500 for the emergency fund. I say loose b/c I don’t know what my current, potentially volatile, situation holds. As for Pampered Chef, that was 3 formal workshops and then outside random orders from people. I put in a total of about 8 hours (6 at the workshops, 2 to prep). The real food education remains my focus and the products really do sell themselves. I’m having fun with it and $1000 is better than a kick in the teeth that’s for sure!!!

  • Reply scarr |

    Way to go raking in all that extra money! Good luck with your emergency fund goal, you’ve made a really great start.

  • Reply JLW |

    I have to admit I was sort of “negative” before, but you really are doing an awesome job with the emergency fund!

  • Reply Cathy C. |

    Nice job on generating some extra cash! I’ve never been a big fan of direct sales companies and those who sell, but I do love Pampered Chef and I’ve found those parties to be the least high-pressure of them all. I have a few friends who focus more on building their down-line than actually selling product and the pyramid scheme leaves a bad taste, but it sounds like you’re doing the absolute right thing with PC and having success. You’re probably not alienating your friends and family either:)

  • Reply Jordann |

    I’ve been meaning to clean out our garage and sell some stuff, but with it so cold nowadays, it’s hard to get the motivation to do it. Good job making that extra money!

  • Reply Deirdre |

    Nicely done! Very, very nicely done! I am in the midst of the great clean out and would love to know more about the actual visit to the store where you consigned your “stuff”. I would love to do this but cannot imagine anyone actually wanting this stuff. I would love perspective to see what people actually consign or sell with success. Keep up the great work!

  • Reply Anon123 |

    Nice job. This is exactly the type of thing we are talking about. That is good clarity on the amount and how you did it.

  • Reply Sammie K |

    Hello from Australia 🙂
    I came across your blog a couple of days ago, and on my day off from work today I’ve been reading through your old posts. I love your positive attitude. Also – if Steve cannot appreciate you for who you are then he doesn’t deserve you, and you’ll be better off without him (trust me, I’ve had many a dumping over the years lol, and it’s sad initially but when it’s not meant to be you’re so much happier after). Time heals all. Keep up the good work 🙂

    • Reply Mochi and Macarons |

      Make an HTML template and use it in every listing so that your common stuff stays the same and consistent.

      Otherwise, to actually catalogue, measure and note down the dimensions of every item, it unfortunately takes a LOT of time.

      2 methods:

      1) One by one — full listings each day, one per day as your goal

      2) All at once — Make an Excel spreadsheet, grab all the clothes, sit down, measure out everything, note it all, then mass-list it all in one day with all the notes.

      I like Method #1 better. Lets me think about how I want to talk about the item

  • Reply Mochi and Macarons |

    I made about $1000 cleaning out my closet before selling on my blog, and since then I’ve been making $1000 consigning and so on.

So, what do you think ?